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Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized to employees on Wednesday and launched an investigation into how the company handled the departure of prominent artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru.
“I heard the reaction to Dr. Gebru’s departure loud and clear,” Pichai said in an email sent to all staff Wednesday that was reviewed by Bloomberg. “It sowed doubt and led some in our community to question their place on Google. I want to say how sorry I am for that and I accept the responsibility of working to restore his confidence. “
Gebru, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher best known for showing how facial recognition algorithms are better at identifying white than black and brown faces, said she was fired last week after a dispute over an academic paper she co-authored in the ethical issues related to technology are raised. that underpins important products like Google Search.
Pichai’s participation shows how quickly the episode has gotten out of hand for Jeff Dean, Google’s head of artificial intelligence and one of the CEO’s top delegates. The visceral reaction to Gebru’s departure – and Dean’s initial response – suggests discontent with management at one of the company’s most prized units.
The Alphabet Inc.-owned company released an internal review on how his departure was handled and the impact the incident has had on employees, especially those from underrepresented minorities, the CEO wrote.
“We have to accept responsibility for the fact that a prominent black female leader with immense talent left Google unhappily,” Pichai said. “This loss has had a ripple effect on some of our underrepresented communities, who saw themselves and some of their experiences reflected in Dr. Gebru’s.”
The researcher wrote on Twitter that the CEO’s email did not go far enough.
The episode began when Google asked Gebru to retract the investigative work, or at least remove the names of the Google employees involved, he said in a later interview with Bloomberg. Gebru rejected the request.
Meanwhile, he cited the experience in an email group of company researchers and urged others to forego a diversity report they were working on. “It makes no difference,” Gebru wrote in the email, which was obtained by Bloomberg. “There is no way that more documents or more conversations will accomplish anything.”
The incident spread to social media, prompting a petition signed by thousands of current and former Google employees, who said the real reason for their firing was their outspoken criticism of Google’s progress in improving business conditions. people of color in the company.
The CEO’s message came after a heated meeting Tuesday with members of the Black Googler Network that left attendees questioning their trust in Google and their support for their artificial intelligence work, according to screenshots from a moderated question session. and responses that followed.
As Dean and Megan Kacholia, the vice president who notified Gebru of his firing, addressed the group, they did not answer questions from attendees. Instead, they had a separate moderator field for inquiries after they left, which angered some employees, many of whom spoke about resigning, according to a person familiar with the events. Other employees called the meeting “deaf” and questioned Google’s insistence on trying to “sweep this evil under the rug,” according to messages reviewed by Bloomberg.
“We say we are committed to doing the right thing,” wrote a black Googler who sent a query during the session. “The correct thing to do is to recognize that what happened to Timnit was not right. I have not seen any of Brain’s leaders acknowledge this. Without this, it is difficult for me as a black woman to trust Google. “Bloomberg News
An interrogator said that Dean and Kacholia’s meeting seemed like a “form of gas lighting” and asked what the attendees were supposed to gain from it. Another asked leaders to “give a reason why I, as the Black Googler in AI, should support Google’s AI Fairness effort after Timnit’s disrespectful treatment.”
